The Blood Moon Battle: Redux

The Blood Moon Battle

Year, 2302. Month, July. Day, Tuesday the 13th. That date will haunt my memory for the rest of my life. A week’s time didn’t do anything to heal that day. And a century won’t do anything either. I didn’t think she was what she was. She threatened us with war, an invasion based on revenge for something we couldn’t fix. Nobody would expect their lover of betraying them. And nobody would expect to kill that lover.
Now it is Tuesday the 20th, and I am looking at a pre-battle picture before the bloodshed that took place. Twenty-nine Z-26 elite agents in front with my five man squad in the back. My mind faded back to the previous week.

It was a bright summer day around the Intergalactic Defense Force headquarters, as I recall it. My, previous love, Rebecca, was coming back from a trip to Sareon for her mother’s birthday. I had just come out of the shower in my military chambers. My trusty, multi-functional wrist display rang and I saw Rebecca’s picture, her intergalactic number, and her full name, Rebecca C. Roseli. I quickly put the display on my wrist and hit the ‘Answer’ button on my screen. There was no video coming through, which was odd for her.
“Hi Becca!” I shouted in excitement. “How was Sareon?” There was a strange silence that lasted for about a minute.
“I’m fine Vin, but, to be honest, I didn’t go to Sareon.” She responded with some guilt in her voice, like she was hiding something from me.
“Where did you go then?” I asked. “And why did you say you were heading to Sareon?” There was another minute of silence.
“I went to the Moon.” She responded.
“The Moon?” I said with fear. “But the moonlings are very hostile towards humans.” I thought I heard her start to cry.
“I am one of them.” She answered through tears. “The females have more humanoid physical characteristics than the males.” I was in shock. I was also in denial. I really didn’t expect that to be her reason for guilt.
“Then why are you with me then?” My question came out with a slight sense of anger. “You could've killed me anytime during the two years we were together!”
“I was on a mission. Make Earth pay for their betrayal of our ancestors.” Her words were said without tears, her words held anger. “And Vin, I did fall in love with you. Your brave act to save me from those extremists on Sareon two years ago started a bond between us. It isn’t a ruse.”
“I don’t think I can trust you anymore.” I felt tears starting to come to my eyes. I held them back. “And you shall not have Earth for your revenge for something we couldn’t fix.” She sighed.
“I will keep the offer open for-“
“And I won’t be giving you the last pure carbon Earth diamond ring. I was planning to propose to you, Rebecca. Now I am question why I wasted my time with a traitor like you.” I said with much anger. “Goodbye and good riddance.” I touched the ‘End Call’ button on my display. Those tears that I held back before came out. In massive amounts. All that time I spent with her. All that time I thought that she loved me. She didn’t love me; she was in love with revenge.
Those tears dried up after twenty minutes. It came to me that she would start an invasion. That she would start her revenge. Well, I won’t let that happen. I doubt thirty-five highly trained soldiers will let that happen either.

The clock just turned its hands to eight thirty in the morning when I entered to debriefing room. Leroy was playing with his pistol; taking it apart and putting it back together in his record time. Fareon was flipping a knife up and down, catching it in the return. Codename Desperge was talking to some of the agents in the seats. And, lastly, Rob was near the door, waiting for me.
“They’re ready for ya Vince.” Rob said with much confidence. Rob and I entered this force when it was still under America’s control. We’ve been good friends since training on a cruiser. I made my way to the podium on an elevated area in the room.
“Alright!” I shouted. Desperge turned around along with the other agents. Fareon caught his knife and sheathed it. Leroy finished putting his pistol back together. And Rob joined me at my side. “We are going to assault the Moon today. Some of you may think it is a suicide mission, if you believe the rumors. Some of you may think it is a simple task. But, I believe that they are going to invade. We are going to make sure we end the invasion before it starts. Some of you may die. Some of you may survive. But the ends justify the means here! Now, any questions?”
“What are we going to be armed with?” A voice with a heavy Russian accent said. “And what are they going to be armed with?” I grinned at the first question, the second made me questionable.
“We are going to be armed with SAR-50s for primary arms and” I pressed a button on the podium and a large display case came up and showed a pistol with a short barrel and an under barrel light “these all new Ravengers.” I opened the case with another button and took one of the thirty-five pistols. “These have the capability to change round types on the go. By default, it is set to a nine millimeter round. But is change able through voice command. Like so, round five point seven.” The barrel lit up and started morphing into a newer shape and length, it beeped twice and it finished.
“Damn, that is pretty impressive.” Xenon responded. I grinned with my next thought.
“It also does not require bullets. It uses a nuclear fusion battery mag. How it converts the energy to lead is something the engineers didn’t explain well enough.” I remembered the other question. “And to what the enemy is going to be armed with; they may have SAK-60s due to the Russians involvement with our launch there before all hell broke loose. They make have our SARs but I am not so certain.” I turned my head to Fareon, who already taken a pistol with his extreme stealth capabilities, and gave him a nod. He walked forward and I moved out of his place at the podium.
“This pistol is amazing, by all standards, a true piece of work. But will their SAKs hit us hard? That is a question some of you may not be thinking. Will they see us on their turf? That I can answer with certainty. I have helped develop a stealth suit with carbon nano-tube plates. These plates will absorb damage and regenerate after a minute or so behind cover. The plates also absorb radar, but that’s not all” Fareon put down the visor on his suit and pressed a button on his arm, after that, he vanished. “I also had a cloaking device built into the suit so they cannot see any of you. Thermal and infrared protected.” He decloaked then turned around and signaled me to take his place. I walked back to the podium for my finale.
“I just want to say, for the Human race, we must defeat these, things, before they take over our Earth. I’ll see you on the battlefield gentlemen.” I turned around and started walking towards the door. The other soldiers clapped and cheered. As I exited, I muttered. “Now to face the one I called my love.”

I woke up the next morning at three thirty for some target practice at Range Three, my squad’s usual range. I had my personal assault rifle I had the engineers make me. Same mechanics as the Ravenger, but with rifle round included. I like to call it the Barrage. I opened the door to the range and started to walk over to spot three, which was my usual spot. I kicked some shell casings and heard some firing. I looked over to spot five and I Desperge there, firing his Ravenger at a titanium target. I decided to move to spot six and have a chat with him, or at least try over the gunfire. I changed my course over to the spot next to him. I got to my spot besides Desperge and chose for the target to be at a hundred meters. I looked over to his target as he brought it closer. Five shots to the brain area, and five to the heart area.
“Damn Dessy, you sure have some aim.” I said to congratulate him. He turned his head and saw it was me.
“Ah, thank ya Vince.” He moved his target to two hundred meters. “Are you ready to take down you-know-who?” He asked. I knew who. Rebecca is who he was talking about. My mind seemed to stop. I looked, blankly, back to my target. My mind was starting to go back, to try to find suspicion in the past.

It was 2300, the IGDF Ball on Sareon was the location. I was at a table with Rob, Leroy, Fareon and Desperge. All of us tired of long speeches to the press and all of us were hungry. All of us were looking in the crowd of dancing soldiers and the press, who were snapping pictures, recording video, and interviewing people. I saw Emily Frausner, one of the pilots dancing with a man who I assumed was her boyfriend. I saw Xenon talking to the bartender not too far off. He was getting a little bit drunk off of the evil liquid called alcohol. Rob joked and said all he was having was vodka. Oh Rob, so quick to try to cheer me up. I was playing with a Sareon-marked credit, folding it and making origami rings. It was an old trick I learned during my teenage years.
“Hello boys.” a woman’s voice said. I looked up and I saw her. She was quite the sight. Her long, brown hair matched her hazel eyes. I noticed that she had a streak of purple in her hair as well. “My name is Rebecca, and I will be your server today. What would you all want for drinks?”
“I’ll take a glass of your best white wine.” Leroy said, as he played with a coin in his fingers.
“I’ll have some ginger ale.” Fareon said, he was like me, never touched a drop of alcohol and never wanted to.
“I’ll take a bottle of your best whiskey, I can handle it, trust me.” Desperge said, he has an extreme tolerance towards alcohol due to his L13 experiments.
“I’ll have what he’s having.” Rob said as he pointed to Xenon at the bar.
“Five shots of vodka? Sure.” Rebecca replied, which caused Rob to laugh loudly, seeing that his joke was true. “And for you?” Rebecca asked me. I was lost in thought. She was a gorgeous woman, I found myself without words. I snapped back to reality.
“I’ll just have water. Not a drop of that evil fluid for me.” She smiled.
“I can understand. My father was an alcoholic. I’ll get you all your drinks and I will be back in a few minutes.” She walked away towards the bar. I sighed.
“I saw the way you were looking at her Vince.” Rob said then giggled. “You know, with your status, you could work up your charm and” I stared at him angrily.
“Rob, you know I am not that kind of person. I want a sound relationship before we do anything like that.” I said with an angry calmness in my voice. Rebecca came back with our drinks almost after I said that. She handed out the drinks to us. Afterwards, she took out her notepad and pen.
“Now, any ideas on the main course?” Rebecca said with a smile. Her smile shined for me.
“I will have the nine ounce steak, cooked medium please.” Leroy asked after he sipped his wine.
“I will have the same.” Fareon asked as he was putting the lime, that was on the rim of his glass, into his ginger ale.
“Twelve ounce steak, as rare as legally possible.” Desperge said as he gulped down half of his whiskey. Rebecca looked at him curiously and wrote down his order.
“I’ll have veal parm, please.” Rob asked, his smile still there from the previous laughter.
“I will take the same. But Rebecca, are you Italian by any chance? You sure look it.” I asked, trying to make conversation.
“Yes, I am. My last name is Roseli.” She responded with a smile. “I will put your orders in and will be back with your food soon.” She left for the kitchen.
“Vince, you should ask her out. I think she is good looking too.” Fareon said.
“Then why aren’t you losing your thought in her looks then?” I asked in a strangely defensive way.
“She has this, vibe I don’t really like about her. Something’s a little bit of with her.” He responded with a straight face.
“Well I don’t think so.” I looked to see two shady people just sitting at the bar, drinking with Xenon. They got up and moved slowly on the rim of the dance floor. I turned to see Rebecca coming back to us. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the shady people walking towards Rebecca. As they got close, they pulled out small assault carbines. As I was going for my sidearm, one of the two grabbed Rebecca and they both shot into the air. The crowded stopped in fear, most of them not in a combat mindset to react to this correctly.
“Alright!” Said one of the assailants. “We are from the United Sareon Revolutionaries. We are here to set an example for this planet!” I pulled out my pistol and jumped out of my seat. I aimed at the man holding Rebecca. I had a clear shot.
“Let go of the girl. Now!” I shouted. The man holding her laughed.
“So the infamous Vincent Connor Defash wants to save this waitress?” The man said with a French accent. “Well I’ll give her a parting gift.” He aimed his carbine at her leg and fired one shot. I acted swiftly by shooting the other guy straight in the head. The fifty caliber round made a clear hole through his skull. I then ran and pistol-whipped the French man, knocking him unconscious. I grabbed the now crying waitress and put pressure on her wound. People were staring, scared of what happened. Most of you are soldiers damn it! You can handle this stuff!
“What are you all staring for? Call a damn medic!” I shouted.

The next day I went to the hospital to visit Rebecca. A nurse showed me to her room. As I approached the door, Rob and Fareon gave me her status.
“She took a five four five to the leg, missed everything vital. They pulled it out and casted her leg up.” Rob said then yawned. They’ve been here since eleven at night, without me asking too.
“She’ll be in that cast for a week; she didn’t want the full special treatment.” Fareon said looking at me with a rare smile.
“Alright, you two can hop on the next ship back to Earth. I’ll take her back with me.” I said. Rob and Fareon nodded and walked past me, towards the elevator. I entered the room.
Rebecca was reading a book; the TV was showing the news from the previous night. She looked at me and smiled. I walked to her bedside.
“Hey, thanks for saving me last night.” Rebecca said with honesty.
“Anything to save you.” The words slipped out of my mouth. She giggled. “I also want to arrange something with you when you leg is all healed up.”
“That sounds swell, mister…” She didn’t know my name.
“Vincent, you can call me any variation of that name if you like.” I informed her.
“Alright, Vinny.” She giggled. “I guess next week we can play a few games of tennis. Haven’t practiced in a long time.”
“Alright, but expect a challenge.” I smiled. I took out a pen and wrote a number on a nearby piece of paper. “I’ll take you home whenever you get discharged. Here is my contact information.” I handed her the paper. She took it, gracefully.
“Alright, I’ll call you when I get out. See you later Vinny.” She said and went back to her book. I turned around and walked out the door.

“Hey, Vin. You fired thirty rounds at my target. What’s up with that?” Desperge said as I snapped back from my flashback. I threw the safety on and put my weapon down.
“I don’t think I can do it, Dessy.” I said with tears starting to form at my eyes. “I honestly think I can’t do it.” The tears now rolled down my cheek. I put my face in my hands, crying my eyes out.
“I, I uhm” Desperge sounded shocked at my display of emotions. “I think you have to face the facts here. She only pursued you to take this planet from us. She is a parasite, and you are the doctor to prescribe the medicine.” He put his Ravager down and started to walk towards me.
“I was going to propose to her!” I shouted through my excess of tears. Desperge’s footsteps stopped.
“You, you were going to propose?” He said with shock in his words, this was a feat not many can achieve with Dessy. He put his hand on my shoulder, to try to calm me down. “I can’t imagine the despair you’re in right now. I cause despair and death, but never felt it. Vince, you already started this, there is no ending it now.” His words brought something to thought. I brought my head up; there was a small pool of tears in my hands.
“I guess you’re right then Dessy.” I wiped away the tears on my face and picked up my Barrage. Just as I picked it up, my display beeped loudly, a message was on the screen. I poked the touch screen and the message displayed. “Aw, damn it! Xenon got hit by a bouncing bullet.”
“Sonuva bitch, we needed some young talent like him.”
“I think we’ll still win this.” I checked my display for the time. It was three fifty, time to head to the ships. “We best be hopping on the birds now.” I started walking towards the door. They opened as I got close and closed a soon after I left. My goal was clear. To win this.

I got to the space carriers in hangar seven at four seventeen. Rob was there talking to the Z-26 agents, probably informing them about Xenon. Emily, the pilot, was by the doors of the carrier, talking through her wrist communicator in German. She briefly looked at me as I moved towards her.
“Ja, ich muss jetzt gehen. Auf Wiedersehen.” She said to the person of the other line and then she hung up on them. She saw me and saluted. “Oh, hello General Defash. Sorry, I was just talking to my brother. He is talking about joining NATO.”
“NATO?” I responded. “Nevermind, get ready to start the ship Emily.” She nodded and walked towards the cockpit. I turned around and heard the pilot door shut. I spotted one of the photographers walking around.
“Hey Greg!” I shouted at the wandering photographer, who turned at my shout with his camera strapped around his neck. “Think you can snap a picture of us before we head for our mission?” He nodded and brought his camera up to his face, flipping it on and then setting it for a perfect picture.
“We got everyone here?” Greg asked with a smile. I cleared my throat.
“All soldiers heading off on today’s mission, stand up and get ready for a picture!” I shouted and the twenty-nine Z-26 agents stood up and got in front of me. Rob, Desperge, Fareon, and Leroy walked over and stood by my sides. I heard Emily come out of the cockpit and took her place by my right side.
“Alright, taking it in three... two...” I heard the faint click of the aperture in Greg’s camera go off. Greg looked at the picture for half a minute. “Came out perfect, I’ll have it done when you guys return.” He ran off towards the north entrance to the hanger, which I assumed was the closest way to his office.
“Everyone to the ship! We are taking off soon!” I shouted as I brought my Barrage to my chest and cocked back the receiver, a common thing done by soldiers ready to head off to battle. I heard cheering from the troops ready to lay their lives down to protect what they know could belong to the vengeful moonlings. We all headed into the carrier.
I entered the ship last, and took the last seat next in between Rob and codename Trust, one of our snipers who is known for his honesty in shooting bets and assignments. Rob put snapped on his brace just as I did.
“I hope you that you are going to take killing her hard.” Rob said. I looked at his face and saw a serious man. “I did it once, she was a secretary here. Remember Lillith Rochester?” I nodded and he sighed. “Well, you know I had a relationship with her for half a year, she was leaking information to European terror cells. I took the mission, thinking I would just imprison her. But ended up putting a three five-seven in her skull.” He put his head down, I could see struggle in his face, like he was holding back tears.
“I think you took that well, and I gave you three weeks off to cope with it.” I pat his back twice. He shook his head.
“Never told anyone this, but you’re gunna be the first to find out, besides the ME in Austria.” He leaned in, towards my ear. “She was two months pregnant.” He whispered. I cocked my head back in shock.
“Rob, was” I was tripping over my words “was it yours?” He nodded and handed me a folded paper from his belt. I opened it and saw a two DNA sets, one labeled Robert Herman and one labeled Fetus. They were a close match, proving Rob was the father of his deceased, unborn child. I looked up at him, he looked back at me without any signs of holding back tears. He wasn’t crying, he had his serious look on his face.
“I killed my son, and his mother with three, three credit, customly made bullets.” He said staring into my eyes. “If I can be like this half a year after I killed two loved ones, I think you can kill Rebecca Roseli.” His words struck me hard. I looked away from him, staring at the weapon racks in the middle of the walkway blankly. I heard the intercom system beep.
“Alright crew.” Emily said through the intercom. “This is Emily Frausner, your pilot for today’s mission to the moon. We will be taking off in five... four...” The hangar doors started opening in front of the nose of the ship. “Three... two...” The noise of the thrusters starting filled the air. “One.” The ship shot off out the doors and into the sky, heading towards the moon. The flight for fight is has started.

We arrived on the moon in about three, long, annoying hours. I never had patience on mission flights. We all activated our helmets to surround our heads and protect us from the airless space. The doors of the ship opened up and we ran out, fully cloaked towards the base in a special formation planned out by Fareon. Our gun straps jumped around with our long strides to victory.
We arrived at the base when we saw the deformed beasts massed together in front of a stage, where two heavily armed bodyguards stood with Rebecca in the middle. We moved around the crowd, unnoticed, towards the stage. Rebecca was giving a speech.
“And today we will start our preparations for war against the IGDF and its leader, Vincent Connor Defash! They will be killed for their treasonous sin of leaving us here on this wretched rock!” The moonlings shouted and raised their fists and SAKs in the air. “We will start with the destruction of the space station with one of the abandoned space nukes we have in the base!” I felt rage inside me as I took a silent grenade from my belt and put my thumb through the pinhole. She kept on shouting more propaganda that was canceled out through my anger. I pulled my thumb back, pulling the pin out, and threw the grenade onto the stage. It made no noise, but Rebecca jumped off the stage before the grenade exploded. Her guards died instantly and my soldiers turned off their cloaking and started shooting at the moonlings. The battle has started.

I shot about seven of the creatures following Rebecca into the base. I got in to find myself surrounded by ten more of them, seeing Rebecca running around a corner. I quickly fired off thirty seven six two rounds into all of the obstacles in front of me. After killing my seventeenth moonling, I ran after Rebecca. I followed a thermal path on my helmet’s display. It led me into a bedroom, and quite an elegant one too. I heard the door slam behind me, turning around to see Rebecca there, in a green, scaly combat suit. She had one hand on the door, the other holding a katana. That katana was a memory for me, I had got it for her on our first year of being together. I disengaged my helmet, it folded back into my combat suit. I looked at her eyes, they were filled with a mix of sadness and murderous rage.
“Vincent, I don’t want it to come to this.” She said as she approached, her katana dragging on the the floor making a line on the white marble. “The offer is still open, and the deaths of your solders can be the compensation for attempting my assassination. Remember, I never stopped loving you since that day two years ago.”
“Rebecca Roseli, you are wanted for treason by the Intergalactic Defense Force of Earth. Your offer is denied and furthers our need for your death.” I said while throwing my Barrage on the bed to my right and pulling a sword hilt from the left side of my hip with my right hand. I strengthened my grip and the titanium blade materialized from the hilt to a foot away from the hilt, matching the length of her katana. “With all formality aside, I will be pleased to kill you myself!” I rushed in, my sword over my right shoulder ready to strike. as I was close and swung my blade, she parried with her katana and we held our blades in a deadlock.
“So be it! I will end you here, in the very same room you decided to abandon us in!” She yelled as she reached for my Ravenger. I saw her hand go for my sidearm and I jumped back. I took my right hand off my sword and replaced it with my Ravenger. I aimed it, roughly, at her, firing three five-seven rounds at her. She blocked two of the bullets with her katana, the third broke her blade, splitting it into two parts. The top half of the blade fell onto the marble floor, and I rushed in towards her. This time, I knocked her broken gift to the ground with my sword.
“Who has the advantage now?” I said with an angry grin as I stabbed my titanium blade through her stomach and out her back, just missing her spinal cord. She coughed up blood onto me.
“Congratulations General Defash.” She said with a dying laugh, causing more blood to come up. “You killed the love of your life, who really has the advantage now?” She coughed up a lot more blood and her eyes shut. I pulled my blade out and dropped it to hold her dead body as she fell. I layed her on the now bloody floor. I felt it coming. It being the tears. I couldn’t hold them back, I let them come out, and in mass. My mind was going back and forth between memories and reality. I looked at my sword, then at my Ravager, and lastly at my Barrage on the bed. No! A voice shouted in my head. I looked at it, tears in my eyes and saw a dark shadowy haze with two red glowing orbs near the top, in the corner near the bed. It isn’t the time for your change yet. Just wait for the death of a new one. The shadow disappeared after I blinked. I stood up from my crouching position.
“There will be no suicide today.” I spoke out loud. “Not today.” I picked up my sword, disengaging the blade, and putting it back in it’s belt spot. I picked up my Ravager putting it in it’s holster. I walked over to my Barrage, throwing it over my shoulder. I wiped the tears from eyes as I walked out of the bedroom and out of the base.

I walked out to see bodies of moonlings and humans alike. I saw Desperge’s dead body under three moonlings, a bayonet in one ear and out the other. Leroy had a large hole where his heart should of been. Fareon was laying on the ground by my feet just outside the base doors. I saw Rob moving walking towards me, his right hand over a wound on his chest. I ran to him, but he fell to the ground before I could catch him.
“Rob! Jesus, thought you wouldn’t go like this.” I said. I went for my medifoam but he mouthed no.
“It is my time, I served this planet enough.” He slowly took a large, golden, fifty caliber BMG round from under his battle suit. “Take it. It was from my father when he served in the Marines.” He coughed up some blood. “I know you could do it Vince, I know you could do” he coughed up the last of his life and then died. My soldiers on this mission are all dead. My love died by my hands and my best friend died to my ordered battle. I took his gift to me and put it around my neck. And walked back to the ship, slowly. I won and lost this battle, in that order. May the Blood Moon Battle go down as one of the most successful failures in IGDF history.